The New York Times Thinks Gays Have Gone Too Far (with Chase Strangio)

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein

Matt Bernstein

Society & Culture, News Commentary, News

4.9 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 July 2025

⏱️ 121 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On the twilight of Pride Month, the New York Times published (and sent out a push notification for) a guest essay titled “How the Gay Rights Movement Radicalized and Lost Its Way” by a gay journalist named Andrew Sullivan. If you thought I could resist this A Bit Fruity bait, you’d be wrong. Today, Chase Strangio — who recently made history as the first trans lawyer to argue in front of the Supreme Court in US v. Skrmetti — helps us parse out some genuinely difficult questions. What is the right way to ask people in power for your rights? Has the gay movement gone too far? What is the point of the New York Times? Listen to bonus episodes on Patreon! Thanks to today’s sponsors! Get smarter about your (and your dad’s!) news media consumption with Ground News at https://www.ground.news/fruity Protect yourself online, wherever you go. Get a discount on NordVPN at https://www.nordvpn.com/fruity Start managing your money better and cancel unwanted expenses at https://www.rocketmoney.com/fruity Find me on Instagram. Find A Bit Fruity on Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The first Pride was a conference sponsored by MasterCard.
0:09.5	Hello, hello, and welcome back to A Bit Fruitie.
0:13.9	I'm Matt Bernstein, and I'm pissed off.
0:16.2	On June 26th, capping off Pride Month, the New York Times published an essay titled, Chase, do you want to read the title?
0:24.4	I am so ready to read the title. How the Gay Rights Movement radicalized and lost its way.
0:31.2	By a little man named Andrew Sullivan. Let's put a pin in him for now. When I saw this title, I thought, Matthew, it's June 26th.
0:41.8	There's four days left of Pride Month. Just enjoy yourself. Protect your peace.
0:47.4	But then, but then, two days later, I receive a text from my father. Do you want to read the text for my father?
0:54.8	Give it the masculine touch. I read this in the opinion section of the New York Times. It's long, but worthwhile,
0:59.9	and I'd be interested in your thoughts. Love you, Dad. Dad, I love you too. And when I got this text,
1:05.5	I remembered that whether or not I want it to be, the New York Times is the paper of record in the United
1:12.4	States. And so I can ignore how the gay rights movement radicalized and lost its way by Andrew
1:19.3	Sullivan, but that won't stop it from reaching a huge amount of other people around the world.
1:24.4	People who may otherwise not be engaged with queer political discourse,
1:28.1	people like my dad, who I love and who has a genuinely open heart and mind about this stuff,
1:34.6	but also who sees something written in the New York Times about how the crazy queers have
1:41.3	overplayed their hand in this whole human rights nonsense and assume it's legitimate
1:46.5	because of the big name at the top of the paper. So, Dad, I love you. This one's for you.
1:52.2	Now, initially, I had a more complicated structure for this episode, but then I realized that
1:57.6	the most logical way to do this, both for me as a podcaster and for you as a listener, is just to read the damn essay.
2:04.9	As we go along, we'll get into the meat of questions like, what is the best way to ask people in power for human rights?
2:12.5	Should gay people have started winding down the movement after we won marriage equality?
	...

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